Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks during the keynote at AWS re:Invent 2024, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, held at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 3, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Noah Berger | Getty Images
Amazon announced Friday that it will continue to offer Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology to its cloud customers, except for work involving the Department of Defense.
The announcement comes after the federal agency notified Anthropic on Thursday that it would classify the company as a “supply chain risk.” In response, Antropic said it had “no choice” but to challenge the designation in court.
“AWS customers and partners can continue to use Claude for all non-Department of the Army (DoW) workloads,” an Amazon Web Services spokesperson said in a statement. “For all DoW workloads that use Anthropic technology, we are helping our customers and partners migrate to alternatives running on AWS.”
President Donald Trump last week ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology in a social media post. The declaration came after Anthropic refused to accede to the Department of Defense’s request to be allowed to operate its technology without restriction in all lawful use cases.
The supply chain risk designation requires defense vendors and contractors to certify that they are not using Anthropic’s model in their work with the Department of Defense.
Public cloud leader Amazon chases top rivals microsoft and google Keep customers updated on Anthropic inventory status. Microsoft announced late Thursday that Anthropic’s Claude model will continue to be accessible in its products outside of defense operations, and Google issued a similar statement early Friday.
Amazon is one of Anthropic’s biggest backers, investing $8 billion in the startup since 2023. The two companies also have a strong commercial relationship.
AWS continues to be Anthropic’s primary cloud and training partner. Anthropic has also committed to using 500,000 of Amazon’s custom-built chips, called Trainium 2, as part of an $11 billion AWS data center campus being built for the startup called “Project Rainier.”
Anthropic’s Claude model is available through AWS Bedrock, allowing businesses to take advantage of artificial intelligence models built by a variety of providers. AWS offers Bedrock to users of its GovCloud service. This is a dedicated cloud region for hosting sensitive data and regulated workflows.
Amazon has won billions of dollars in contracts to provide cloud and AI services to federal agencies. In November, the company allocated up to $50 billion for AI infrastructure for U.S. government customers. At the time, AWS was serving more than 11,000 government agencies.
Anthropic relied on AWS as a route to government work. In November 2024, the company partnered with a software and services vendor. Palantir AWS provides defense and intelligence agencies with access to Claude models.
“We are excited to partner with Anthropic and Palantir to deliver new generative AI capabilities that drive innovation across the public sector,” said AWS Vice President Dave Levy in the announcement.
Eight months later, Anthropic won a $200 million Department of Defense contract and became the first AI lab to integrate its models into mission workflows on classified networks.
—CNBC’s Ashley Capoot contributed to this report.
